MediConnect

Autonomy vs. oversight

Teenagers need autonomy over their health information to build trust with providers and develop self-advocacy — while parents need appropriate visibility for safety. The whole product comes down to one decision: where you draw the line between what a parent can and can't see.

I owned the UI architecture

On a team of two, I owned the UI architecture: the information hierarchy, what each persona sees and what's hidden, the interaction model for the GP chat, and the three-tier visibility structure across profiles. I wasn't a passive contributor — the screen layout and the logic of what is shown to whom was my work.

The trust problem solved the design problem

We researched with parents aged 25–46 and found genuine disagreement — some felt teen autonomy was essential, others wanted full visibility. The deciding insight was what I call the trust problem: no abusive parent downloads an app that limits their access. So the system can safely grant teens real privacy, because the people most likely to misuse oversight self-select out.

The edge case that drove the design: a teenager dealing with substance use who can't talk to their family — that's exactly the user who needs the confidential chat most.

“No abusive parent downloads an app that limits their access. That's why we could give teens genuine clinical privacy — the edge case we designed for was a teenager in crisis who can't speak to their family.”

Full privacy vs. a tiered model

My teammate argued for full privacy in sensitive cases like pregnancy. I argued for a tiered model — teenagers are still financially and legally dependent on their parents, so total opacity isn't always safe or practical. The research broke the deadlock: what parents actually wanted was for their kids to develop autonomy naturally, with trust built progressively. We landed on tiered visibility, with parental access to non-sensitive information by mutual agreement.

A research-driven concept

MediConnect is a research-driven concept prototype: two high-fidelity apps that make the privacy argument concrete. The parent app handles booking, family management, and notifications but no access to the teen's private health data; the confidential chat and emergency support are teen-only. The contribution isn't the screens — it's the defensible boundary underneath them.